The room was quiet.
Too quiet.
Arien lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling fan as it turned—slow, uneven, click… click… click. Each rotation felt like a second being shaved off his life.
"So that's it, huh…"
His voice sounded distant, even to himself.
Six months ago, the doctor had said the words calmly, as if he were explaining bad weather.
Untreatable.Late stage.No permanent recovery.
Arien remembered nodding back then. Remembered how oddly peaceful he had felt.
He hadn't cried.Hadn't shouted.Hadn't asked why me?
He already knew the answer.
Because nothing ever waited for me. And it's not like that, there is a f*cking happiness in life.
You can not have only one emotion in life, can you ??
No parents—divorced and gone before he learned what a "family" really meant.No friendships that lasted without a price.No relationships that didn't end in betrayal or expectation.
Money had been the only thing that stayed.
So he chased it.
Degrees. Promotions. Investments. Properties.
A perfect life on paper.
A hollow one in reality.
"Funny," Arien murmured, coughing lightly into his fist. "I won… and still lost."
A darker red stained his palm.
He didn't panic anymore.
He stood up, changed his shirt for the eighteenth time today, and tossed the bloodied one into a corner already filled with others.
The medicine on his desk sat untouched.
Useless.
Painkillers dulled the edge, but the pain always returned—sharper, angrier, as if his body was reminding him who really owned it now.
He had stopped treatment months ago.
Not because he had given up.
But because he had decided.
"I don't want to die slowly," he had told the doctor."I don't want machines breathing for me.""I don't want sympathy from strangers."
He wanted to live—properly—until the end.
So he sold everything.
All investments.All long-term plans.All futures that no longer mattered.
And with that money, he bought time.
Food that tasted good.Novels he had bookmarked for years.And games—real games.
His gaze shifted to the monitor.
The familiar loading screen glowed softly.
APOCALYPSE OF DESTRUCTION
A brutal game.High difficulty.No mercy.
Which is going to be shut off soon.
But it's the only thing like to do in my remaining days.
A world where most people died in the first year.
Which sure is brutal.
Arien smiled faintly.
"At least this one doesn't lie."
He sat down, fingers resting on the mouse.
On his desk lay a black-and-gold card.
He bought it, it's a little bit pricy, but what money holds value now,
as well as enjoy the game
GOLDEN MEMBERSHIP
+50% RewardsSpecial Storylines UnlockedHidden Events Enabled
He had laughed when he bought it.
"If I'm dying anyway," he had said out loud, "might as well die as a whale."
The game loaded.
Ruined cities.Mutated skies.Humanity is collapsing under its own fear.
Arien guided his character through a high-level zone—careful, precise, patient.
Then—
"Kh—!"
A violent cough ripped through his chest.
Blood splattered onto the keyboard.
His vision blurred.
Pain exploded, sharper than ever before, like something inside him had finally snapped.
"…Guess this is it."
His legs gave out.
As he fell, his eyes locked onto the frozen game screen.
"So… this is how I log out."
Darkness swallowed him.
THUD.
Arien jolted awake.
"Hah—! Hah—!"
Air burned into his lungs. He sat up violently, heart pounding like it was trying to escape his chest.
No pain.
No coughing.
No blood.
"…What?"
He looked at his hands.
Steady.
Warm.
Alive.
"This isn't my room."
The bed was different. The walls were old. The air smelled faintly of dust and cheap detergent.
His head throbbed—
—and memories flooded in.
Not his.
A different life.A weaker body.A man scraping by with nothing.
Arien staggered to his feet.
"I was coughing… moments ago. I was dying."
But why does it feel too familiar?
Then—
DING.
A translucent blue window unfolded in front of him.
Clean. Sharp. Game-like.
"CREATOR SYSTEM INITIALIZED"
Player: ArienStatus: Soul Transfer CompleteWorld: Normal-Dimension EarthTimeline: 7 Days Before Global Collapse
His breath caught.
It's also familiar like my game character
"A system…?"
Another window slid open.
"MAIN QUEST"
Accept Your Fate
Objective: Survive the ApocalypseTime Limit: Permanent
Red text flashed.
"WORLD EVENT CONFIRMED"
– Zombie Outbreak– High-Grade Mutations– Human Survival Rate: Extremely Low
Global Collapse In:6 Days 23 Hours 59 Minutes
Arien's heartbeat slowed.
Not from fear.
From clarity.
So after death, I came to this world, but the survival rate is too low, and if I think about now, the MC also has a girlfriend; she sold him off for money and recognition.
What a pity, but this time it's different i I should calm down a bit.
"So… I didn't escape death," he said softly. "I just changed the battlefield."
A new panel appeared.
"STARTER REWARD"
Creator Inventory– Infinite Storage– No Weight– Time Stasis Enabled
Achievement Points (AP): 0Level: 0
Another line appeared beneath it.
Quest Reward Upon Completion:– AP– Skill Unlocks– Fate Divergence
Arien laughed quietly, rubbing his face.
"All my life," he whispered, "I ran from the end."
He looked at the countdown timer.
"Now the end is coming anyway."
His eyes hardened.
"…Fine."
He straightened his back.
"If fate wants to end this world," he said calmly,"Then I'll accept it."
The system pulsed once.
"QUEST ACCEPTED"
Outside the window, the city slept peacefully.
Unaware.
For now.
There are only seven days remaining, and when I looked at his phone, he had made a lot of transactions to his girlfriend and sold his original family villa cheaply to give money and start a new business.
He is totally a simp.
What's that bitch's name again? Sophia, isn't it? How should I deal with her?
I will think about that later.
For now, I need to think about how I can gather supplies with no money and create a safe base to stay alive. Most of the population vanished because
When the mutation occurs, and the number of monsters increases, they will try to hunt humans like a lion hunting deer, and simple buildings can't hold them off, and more than 90% of the population vanishes within a year before world events even start.
I should think about how I can get my money first. Should I text her to come home? But as his memory speaks, she can't think highly of him, and as of now, I don't have any skills. I should get skills when the sub quest is done, but as of now, there are none, so what should I do?
When he is engulfed in many questions, what to do that time when sounds hears the door slamming ...........
To be continued ...